Invitrogen to Sell BioReliance for a $290 Million Loss
In 2004, Invitrogen paid $500 million to acquire BioReliance, which had $90 million in sales at the time (see IBO 12/31/03). On Invitrogen’s conference call, Greg Lucier, Invitrogen chairman and CEO, told analysts, “When we purchased this business in 2004, we believed there would be great synergy between Invitrogen’s Cell Culture Media business and the testing and development capabilities within BioReliance. Quite frankly, the strategic fit never materialized as clients believed each offering had to stand on its own.
New York, NY 2/13/07; Carlsbad, CA 2/13/07—Invitrogen has agreed to sell BioReliance to private equity firm Avista Capital for $210 million. BioReliance, a contract service organization providing biological safety testing, toxicology, viral manufacturing and laboratory animal diagnostic services, has annual revenues of $110 million and provides services to more than 600 clients per year. Tim Derrington, general manger of BioReliance, will be appointed president and CEO and Charles Harwood, previously president and CEO of Focus Diagnostics, will serve as chairman. “This is an exciting time for BioReliance, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Avista Capital Partners as we develop a strategy for investing in new service initiatives to capitalize on the growth of the biotech service sector,” stated Mr. Derrington. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Invitrogen also disclosed that earlier this month it sold BioSource Europe SA, a Belgium-based diagnostics business with $7 million in annual sales, to a private investor group in Belgium.
